Canada to face Mexico with first place on the line at CONCACAF Women’s World Cup

With first place on the line, Canada will face Mexico in the final group match of the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Qualifier this Tuesday 2 November. The two sides will meet at the Estadio Beto Ávila in Cancún, Mexico. Both sides have already qualified for the semi-final stage, but their ranking will determine who they meet from the opposite group in the semi-final match. The Tuesday night winner will face Costa Rica while the second-place team will face USA.

The Canada-Mexico match kicks off at 19.30 local time, which is 21.30 ET / 18.30 PT. The match will be broadcast on CBCSports.ca, bold, Radio-Canada.ca/Sports, and CONCACAF TV. An encore presentation of the match will be played at midnight on CBC Television (24.00 local time in each of the various time zones across Canada).

Also on Tuesday night, Trinidad and Tobago will face Guyana in the other Group A match. Both teams will be knocked out of the tournament, but they will play for third place in the group.

Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and presenting sponsor is Teck, has a rich history of playing against Mexico. In fact, Canada has faced Mexico 15 times with an overall record of 13 wins, one draw and one loss. In recent years, however, Mexico has improved significantly and the Canada-Mexico matches since 2004 have never been decided by more than two goals.

The last Canada-Mexico match was 9 April 2008 when Canada qualified for the 2008 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. In front of 19,850 Mexican fans at the Estadio Olímpico Benito Juarez, Canada won 1:0 on the strength of a memorable Melissa Tancredi goal in the 24th minute.

Canada will have to be at its best on 2 November as a passionate pro-Mexican crowd is once again expected to be in attendance.

Both teams have made changes to their lineups in the first two matches, with 20 Canadians seeing action and 18 of the 20 Mexicans seeing action. Canada’s top scorer is Christine Sinclair, who scored four times against Guyana. Mexico’s top scorer is Maribel Dominguez, who score three goals against Guyana and one goal against Trinidad and Tobago.

For Canada, a win or draw will keep the team in first place. In the account of a draw (in which case both teams are even on points and are even in the head-to-head match), Canada finishes first with the greater goal difference in all group matches (Canada is +9 while Mexico is +7).

The semi-final stage is 5 November (at Estadio Beto Ávila) while the championship final is 8 November (next door at the Estadio Andrés Quintana Roo).

The FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 runs 26 June to 17 July in nine German cities: Augsburg, Berlin, Bochum, Dresden, Frankfurt, Leverkusen, Mönchengladbach, Sinsheim, and Wolfsburg. Canada has qualified for each of the past four FIFA Women’s World Cups (Sweden 1995, USA 1999, USA 2003, China 2007) and hopes to make it five straight in early November. The top two teams from the CONCACAF championship will qualify for Germany 2011 while the third-place team will face Italy in a two-leg playoff for the final place.